New Polish media bill vetoed by the President

On July 17 Polish President Lech Kaczyński vetoed the new media bill on the grounds that he found it threating to the Polish media.

Piotr Kownacki, the Chef of the President's Chancellery informed the press that President Kaczyński was concerned by negative opinions about the bill, especially those coming from the artists and media producers. The President also found the new bill threating to the public mission of the media, which in his opinion would become too commercial. In addition, he found the new project not sufficient to meet the needs of regional public stations, focusing on the national channels. The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk had already announced that his party the Civic Platform, one of the main authors of the bill, will work on overriding the President's veto.

The new Polish media bill was a project based on the revolutionary approach to the financing and structure of the Polish media. It included the cancellation of the TV and radio fee as the main source of media funding and replaced it with government funds distributed by film and television professionals, not politicians. It also introduced a system of program licensing which would allow private producers and filmmakers to create programs for the public broadcasters.

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